6Colombes
Gunman hostage taking in Colombes – a suburb to the northwest of the French capital – ended safely at 1430. Earlier three hostages were able to escape uninjured.
“There was no assault, the man surrendered on his own,” a police source told the AFP news agency.
Preliminary reports gunman is known to police forces and has a psychiatric history. Gunman was armed when he entered the Colombes post office at 1400 – witnesses say he became agitated.
Daily Telegraph reporter Henry Samuel in a dispatch from Paris says the gunman phoned number 17 [the French emergency number] saying rambling things.” Elite police units quickly surrounded the post office.
It’s said the gunman was «suite d’une déception sentimentale» : “disappointed in love.”
The Colombes post office incident comes within a week of jihadist attacks by militant islamist gunmen which killed 17 people over three days in the French capital.
Colombes : prise d’otages dans un bureau de poste
Prise d’otage à Colombes : le forcené interpellé, les otages libérés
Colombes – Paris hostages in post office